


This again?

by bestliars



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: 5 Times, M/M, Minnesota Wild, Roommates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-26
Updated: 2015-04-26
Packaged: 2018-03-25 19:19:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3821824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bestliars/pseuds/bestliars
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Selected times Charlie Coyle walked in on Jason Zucker making out with someone, plus two times he made better life choices.</p>
            </blockquote>





	This again?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bessyboo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bessyboo/gifts).



> The sixth bit of this was written for BessyBoo on her birthday last year because she asked for this story on twitter. The rest of it got written because I wanted there to be enough story to make it worth posting. So this is all her fault. Happy Birthday dear.
> 
> (shhhhh let’s just pretend that they lived together in Houston. Kampfer who? Kampfer boooooo.)
> 
> (also, it took so long to beta this story that the ending got a tiny bit jossed, but whatever.)

1

The first time Charlie really spends any time with Jason Zucker is during the 2011 WJC. Charlie doesn’t really know Zucker, but he seems like a pretty cool guy. He’s kinda loud, seems like he’s got a good sense of humor.

It’s pretty early in the tournament when Charlie walks in on Zucker making out with Nick Bjugstad. Charlie doesn’t know it’s Zucker right away, he just sees a _giant_ gangly blond dude kissing someone who’s a lot smaller than him, and quickly decides to turn around and leave the room. That seems like the smartest course of action. Charlie isn’t really interested in who on the team is hooking up, he’s just interested in _hockey_. Hockey and America: that’s all that really matters right now.

He finds out that it was Zucker the next day, when Zuck comes up to him to talk about it.

“So, you walked in on me and Bjugs yesterday, right? We can talk about it if you want.”

“Talk about what?” Charlie asks curiously. It’s weird. It isn’t that Charlie had forgotten about what happened, he’d been thinking about it some, but he didn’t expect anything like this. He figured it was something he was supposed to forget ever happened.

“Anything you think we need to talk about. PDA, whether it’s my fault for not locking the door or Nick’s for not asking if it was locked, the fact that I kiss dudes sometimes, that Nick’s actually way too fucking tall for me to kiss standing up.”

The blunt way that Zucker throws it all out there startles a laugh out of Charlie. “Nah, I don’t think we need to talk about any of that.”

“Great.” Jason smiles at him. “So we’re cool then?”

“Yeah, we’re cool.”

It’s as simple as that.

They’re both back at the WJC the next year, in Alberta this time. When Zuck gets named the captain, Charlie thinks about last year, how Zuck went out of his way to talk to Charlie when he really didn’t have to. That was leadership, or whatever they’re calling it. Charlie’s impressed anyway.

Charlie doesn’t walk in on Zuck kissing anyone this year, but Zuck _is_ the captain this time around, so maybe it’s different. Or maybe Charlie’s just gotten better at knocking before he opens any doors. Either way, he doesn’t feel like he’s missing anything. It’s fun to hang out with Jason and not see him kiss anyone. Charlie wonders what it will be like to be on a team with Jason next year — it’ll probably be pretty exciting?

2

In between the two world junior tournaments, they see each other over the summer at the Wild’s prospect camp. Charlie sticks close to Zuck — he just got traded to the Wild during the draft, he doesn’t really know any of the other guys, but he knows Zuck, which is good enough. Zuck was at camp the year before, plus he’s a people person. Charlie wouldn’t say he’s quiet exactly, but he’s not as outgoing as Zuck, which, really, most people aren’t. Sticking with Jason means it’s pretty easy, he’s always in the middle of all the action. 

They get through camp. It’s kind of exciting, in a really boring way. Even though everyone’s tired, they basically have to spend the last night hanging out .

Apparently the end of training camp leads to some really bad ideas, like truth or dare. Charlie isn’t a fan of this. Like, he doesn’t really want to see his future teammates embarrass themselves, and he doesn’t want to make himself look dumb. It’s just...not a great idea.

Charlie winds up in another room, playing video games for a while, until that gets boring. He walks back into the room just in time to see Zuck kissing _Jonas_ , who’s been so quiet all week, and only turned eighteen on Wednesday. Charlie has no idea what he should do, if he should do anything, if he should maybe pull Zuck off.

Before he can do anything, Zuck pulls away to smile widely and pat Jonas on the back. “There we go Brods, that wasn’t so bad?”

Jonas nods a little bit, and doesn’t look that damaged.

“Your first kiss from an American, you’ll want to remember that. I wasn’t trying hard, but that was still probably one of the best kisses in your young life,” Zuck says.

Scandi overhears this, and objects strongly — something about Canada and Romance languages and Italy and passion. Zuck gets up to argue, unable to let any slight to the good old US of A go uncontested. 

Charlie sits down next to Jonas in the space Jason left behind.

“Zuck’s kind of, uh, something, yeah?” Charlie doesn’t really know what he wants to say.

Jonas nods. “Interesting.”

Exactly. Charlie nods, “Yeah, he’s sure that.” Jonas smiles at that. They sit and watch Zuck and Scandi argue for a while. They both have a lot to say about nationalism and what’s considered too much tongue.

“I’m pretty sure this is going to end with the two of them making out. You want to get out of here?” Charlie asks.

“Yes please,” Jonas says, standing up eagerly. The two of them leave, looking for entertainment that doesn’t include Zuck kissing anyone. Later on Brett tells Charlie that it never actually got that far, the goalies broke it up — the textbook definition of a timely save. Still, Charlie’s glad he got out when he did.

3

Charlie isn’t sure about living with Jason in Houston, but he isn’t sure about a lot of things in Houston. Living with Zuck might be an adventure? But at least Charlie will mostly know what to expect.

He didn't expect that Jason would be as good of a cook as he is — not great, but better than Charlie, and he'll make dinner for them both sometimes. He didn't expect that Jason would have so many pairs of sneakers, or that he would be so particular about how they're all organized in his closet, but Charlie isn't judging.

He expected that it would be fun to hang out with Jason a lot, and it is. They rewatch _Miracle_ , and share rides back from practice. It's pretty nice. 

They’re in the second week of the season the first time Jason brings someone home. Charlie had already gone to bed when Jason comes in, but he stumbles out to the living room when he hears a noise. It's just Jason, kissing a girl right inside the door. 

Oh. 

Ohhhh. 

Cool. Charlie's going to go back to sleep. He was expecting this, or something like it, sooner or later. He doesn't care who Jason kisses, but he figured that living together meant he'd be finding out anyway. It isn't really a problem. 

 

6

Charlie only catches a glimpse of the girl in Oklahoma City. He’s across the bar from where Zuck is talking to her, but from what he can make out she’s tall and blonde, which seems to be Zuck’s type. Charlie doesn’t room with Jason on the road, they see each other enough at home, so really this shouldn’t be his problem. But Kampfer invites him over to watch a movie until curfew, and Kampfer’s Jason’s roommate, so it kind of becomes Charlie’s problem, for about five second until they slam the door closed again. 

Kampfer starts laughing. “Not putting anything in front of the door, that’s a rookie mistake.”

8

They won tonight. It was their third game in four days, and they got five points this weekend, which is pretty great. They were on the road for the first two, but they got back to Houston for a Sunday afternoon game. Tired as they were, they managed to hang on to an early lead, and Hack was absolutely fantastic, making saves to keep them in it even when everyone’s legs were gone.

They have the next day off, so most of the team’s headed out to celebrate. Charlie’s still getting used to the city, but Scandi knows somewhere that doesn’t card and doesn’t mind half a hockey team taking over a bunch of tables.

Charlie’s a little bit stumbly when he starts looking for Zuck. He isn’t drunk, but he’s _tired_ , and has had a couple of drinks, but he’s pretty with it. He just wants to get home and sleep. He hasn’t seen Zuck in a while, not since Zuck was doing shots with the goalies. Charlie thought of wandering over there, but then realized that was probably a pretty bad idea, so he stayed where he was, talking to Larsson about the clear superiority of American pizza.

Now that Charlie’s looking, he doesn’t see Zuck anywhere, which is kind of a problem. Charlie wants to go home, and if Zuck isn’t ready to go now, he at least wants to check in. Good roommate manners and all.

He eventually finds Jason on the stairs by patio. (It’s kind of weird to be living in a place where the patio is still open in November. At home it would be cold, especially after dark.) He kind of wishes he hadn’t realized this space existed, cause, well, Jason is... basically climbing Darcy like a tree? That’s the expression, right? Charlie doesn’t get a real good look cause he doesn’t really want to know. But like, it’s some enthusiastic vertical making out, and Charlie doesn’t know where everyone’s hands are, but he doubts they’re anywhere that’d be considered proper. 

Charlie goes back inside, and sits down next to Fonzy, who starts telling this really boring story about something that happened in Duluth. Charlie can’t really hear, and isn’t trying that hard to pay attention, but it’s calming. 

Jason finds him later on. He leans against Charlie’s side in the booth, and Charlie throws his arm over Jason’s shoulder, holding him up some. Charlie notices that Jason’s staring and follows his line of sight; Darcy’s standing by the bar with Hack and Scandi.

“We should head home soon, yeah?”

Charlie feels Jason nod against him. They’ll go home, and Zuck will sleep it off, and in the morning maybe Charlie will mention how he walked in on Jason making out with Kuemps, but probably not. 

 

10

He meets Kelly the next morning, when he makes them all eggs. Charlie’s used to being the early riser in their apartment, getting a start on the coffee and breakfast before Zuck’s out of bed. Zuck isn’t naturally a morning person, but it’s one of many things he’s stubborn about needing to defeat. Charlie doesn’t really get it, but he doesn’t have to.

Kelly seems really nice. She’s just graduated and moved to Houston in the fall. It’s not like he gets to know her super well over breakfast, but in that limited opportunity she kind of reminds Charlie of Jason, but maybe that’s just because she’s wearing one of his shirts. She’s talkative enough that things never get too awkward, seemingly easy-going. 

She kisses Zuck before she leaves. Charlie looks down at his plate, and doesn’t say anything.

“So she seems nice,” Charlie says after he’s heard the door shut.

“Yeah.”

“Did you get her number?” Charlie asks.

Jason shrugs. “I didn’t ask. I don’t think I want the whole...dating someone.”

Charlie nods. Okay then. That isn’t really surprising, but they hadn’t really talked about any of this stuff before.

 

12

Charlie’s kind of enjoying winter in Houston, but when the lockout ends he’s thrilled to head up to freezing Minnesota for a rushed training camp. He doesn’t make the Wild out of camp, but he gets called up a few weeks later, and that’s great. He gets to play in the NHL! Only for four games before he’s back with the Aeros, but that lasts about a week before he’s back up again. It’s so cool.

When he gets back to the Cities, Zuck's already up, and so is Darcy. They’re all living at the same hotel downtown, and Charlie is only a little bit surprised to find both of them when he knocks on Jason’s door to see if he wants to walk over to the X together. They're...rumpled? And like, at this point Charlie's done being surprised. Whatever it is, that's cool. 

Charlie and Jason both get told to find a place for the rest of the season, and they don’t even think about it, of course they’re going to be roommates again. They throw all their bags into the back of the car Charlie's been driving, and move from the hotel in downtown Saint Paul to an apartment in downtown Minneapolis. It isn't much, pre-furnished and impersonal, but it feels a little bit more permanent, even though they could still get sent back to Texas at any point. Charlie's pretty excited about it. 

They've been at the new place for less than twenty-four hours before Charlie walks in on Jason and Darcy kissing in the kitchen. Charlie had just gone upstairs to hang out with Brods for a while. Jason had said Darcy might be coming over later, but uh, Charlie hadn't known it would be like this. 

It's fine though, everyone's got their clothes on, it's cool. He doesn’t know why they were in the kitchen, and he doesn’t really want to. It’s not like they’re going to use the kitchen much. The three of them hang out for a while, catch the end of a game on TV. Charlie goes to bed early, and Darcy hasn't left yet. 

Darcy's still there in the morning. 

That’s great. Jason can figure out his own life stuff, Charlie's just gonna play hockey. 

 

15

Charlie gets woken up from his nap by his phone alarm. He feels rested, ready to get ready for the game. It’s important to have good habits. He has to eat dinner with Jason, and then they’ll drive to the rink, where he’ll get his sticks ready, then warm up, then get his gear on. And after that they play hockey. But it starts with a good nap.

Charlie walks out into the living room thinking about supper. He stretches his arms over his head. He blinks. Jason is making out with Darcy on the couch. Charlie blinks again. They’re still there. Charlie turns around and goes back into his room.

He lies back down on his bed and thinks about what he should do next.

It’s not that surprising? Like, Darcy’s living out of a hotel, but he’s stayed over before. And he’s stayed for pregame naps, and like, Charlie knew that Darcy and Jason are a thing where they share a bed. And apparently make out on the couch in Charlie’s living room, which is kind of a problem because it’s time for dinner now.

Fuck it.

He’s not going to get embarrassed on their behalf, he’s gonna say something and get on with his night.

“Hey guys?” Charlie shouts. “Is it safe for me to leave my room yet?”

There’s a crash that could be someone falling from the couch onto the floor, then the sound of Jason laughing loudly.

“Yeah, it's all clear,” Jason yells back.

This time when Charlie walks into the living room, Zuck is sitting on the floor, while Darcy’s on the couch, blushing.

“Sorry about that,” Darcy says. “Won’t happen again.”

Charlie shrugs. He doesn’t mind that much, it’s just that he needs to eat dinner so he can go to the rink so he can get ready for the game so he can play hockey. That’s what’s really important. Charlie doesn’t care about who Zuck’s kissing, as long as it makes Zuck happy — it’s just better when Charlie doesn’t have to see anything. 

 

+1

Game three against the Blackhawks is on a beautiful May afternoon, and they _win_. Jason scores in overtime, it’s brilliant. They go out for dinner afterwards. It was a great game, the weather’s awesome, it’s Darcy’s birthday — they need to celebrate.

That’s really good, getting dinner and everything. But Charlie doesn’t want to overhear or walk in on any other celebrations. Cause it’s Darcy’s birthday, and Jason had the overtime winner, and...yeah. 

Good for them. Charlie really doesn’t want to find out how they’re celebrating.

They’re even pretty bad at dinner, worse than usual anyway. Normally they’re pretty restrained if they’re in public or out with the team, but Charlie would totally describe the way they’re looking at each other as googly eyes. It’s kinda gross. Kinda sweet, too, maybe, but Charlie doesn’t want to think about that.

Towards the end of the meal Jonas complains that Zuck kicked him, which probably means that Zuck was trying to play footsie but didn’t have a very good grasp on directly across the table vs one seat over. Charlie rolls his eyes.

Charlie finds Jason on the way out of the restaurant, pulls him in for a half-hug. “Great goal.”

Zuck leans in, then thumps him on the back, says, “Thanks man.”

“I’m gonna crash with Brods tonight, so you can—” Charlie waves his hand. He doesn’t want to guess, he doesn’t want to know. “I’ll see you tomorrow, ok?”

Jason puts it together. “Yeah, awesome.”

Charlie starts jogging ahead to catch up Jonas, when Zuck calls after him, “Text first, in the morning. Just in case.”

Charlie flips him off and keeps walking, not looking back so Zuck can’t see that he’s smiling.

17

Charlie was just looking for a bit of quiet. It totally isn’t fair that he walks around the corner and finds Zuck and Kuemps pressed against each other, mouths together. He doesn’t look long enough to see where everyone’s hands are, or if they had their pants up or not. He doesn’t need any more mental images.

He just turns around and says, “Seriously?” He’s getting sick of this. “Like, I wasn’t okay walking in on you when it was in our living room, which was at least a place where it kind of vaguely made sense to be messing around, if it wasn’t for the fact that I lived there too.”

“Sorry Chuck,” Darcy says. “We didn’t think anyone was going to wander over here.”

“Why would you think that?” Charlie says. They’re fairly hidden away, in a deserted hallway that Charlie wouldn’t have ventured into if he hadn’t been looking for a brief escape from the sun and the crowds. 

“I’m not sorry,” Jason says.

“You suck,” Charlie says.

Jason laughs, and Charlie regrets his choice of insult.

“Can I turn around?” Charlie asks. “I want to you to see how annoyed I am.”

“Yeah, we’re all decent,” Darcy says.

Charlie turns slowly, not entirely sure they aren’t gonna do something just to mess with him, but it turns out fine. They’re still closer than they would be where other people could see them, but whatever. He doesn’t care that they’re dating or hooking up or whatever — he doesn’t know what they’re calling it now, he hasn’t asked — he just doesn’t want to see it.

“I’m not sorry,” Jason repeats. “I mean, like, it’s too bad that you walked in on us, but I’m not actually sorry about what we were doing. No regrets.”

“You’re ridiculous,” Charlie says. “You’re terrible. Next year I’m going to live with Jonas. He can cook and I’m sure he would be better with the whole behaving appropriately thing.”

“He won’t watch _Miracle_ with you,” Jason says. “You’ll have to watch movies with subtitles.”

“I don’t really care,” Charlie says, which isn’t entirely true, but he’s willing to overlook his actual opinion for the sake of their argument. He turns to Darcy and asks, “Why do you put up with him? He’s terrible.”

Darcy shrugs. “Habit or something.”

“He’s lying,” Jason says. “Really he thinks I’m awesome.”

Dacy shrugs again. “Yeah, pretty much.”

“ _Annnnnd,”_ Jason says, drawing out the word to set up his next point, “This isn’t all on me. I couldn’t make out with myself. Well...not really. Half the blame is on him.”

Darcy starts to defend himself. “It wasn’t my idea!”

“It wasn’t your idea this time.”

Charlie takes out his phone to check the time. Their break is almost over, it’s tragic. “We should go now. If we aren’t back it won’t be good.” He starts back towards the festivities, half listening to their continuing argument. He hopes that if he’s part of the road tour next year, it’s with teammates who are less annoyingly into each other than Jason and Darcy seem to be.

20

Charlie does wind up sharing an apartment with Jason the next fall, or well, at least that’s the plan. Zuck starts the season in Iowa, and is up and down a bunch. Darcy has been up more than he’s been in the A, but is still living in a hotel. Charlie’s figured out what he has to expect when they’re both in the Cities.

He gets home from watching a movie with Jonas to find Zuck and Darcy are making out on the couch, again.

“Seriously guys? You have a bedroom right there.” It’s like twelve steps from where they are to a space with a door that closes.

He half misses the time, less than a year ago, when this would have been worth remarking on. Now he’s just so used to it. Jason and Darcy just make out in the living room sometimes, and it’s annoying, but it’s going to happen.

23

“You’re really gross,” Charlie says.

Darcy apologizes.

Jason laughs.

26

“I hate you both. You don’t get to apologize anymore Kuemps, you’re both terrible.”

28

“Maybe it should be a thing, like a swear jar, only for kissing?” Charlie suggests.

“Or maybe you should just find someone you want to makeout with?”

Jason might have a point there…

“Or maybe you can just make sure I’m not around?" Really, that makes a lot more sense.

+2

Jason’s talking about getting a dog. He’s been talking about it for a while, but now that his season’s over, he’s starting to make real plans. 

“You’ll be cool with a puppy living with us next season?” Zuck asks.

Charlie hadn’t thought of that at all. He’s thought some about living situations for next year, but not about the possibility of living with Zuck and his dog.

“I don’t know,” Charlie says, trying to figure out how he wants to say this. “It’s like, Zuck, you’re a great friend, and a pretty good roommate. But next year you should live with Darcy. And I should live somewhere else, so I won’t walk in on anything, or overhear anything. You should be asking _Darcy_ about getting a dog.”

Zuck’s got his thinking face on, the one that leads to interesting places. He finally says, “I guess if it was just me and Darcy we wouldn’t have to put pants on for breakfast.”

That isn’t exactly what Charlie was getting at, but yeah, that’s true. “Exactly buddy.”

“You and me can still hang out a lot.”

“Yeah, absolutely. We’ll still have to get together to watch _Miracle,_ since you’re a traitor who’s dating a Canadian, and I’ll want to hang out with your dog.”

“But we’ve moved past the roommate stage,” Zuck says, a little bit sadly. It is a pretty big change, and living together for the past two years has been really nice, but it’s time to move on. “We need to hug now,” Jason says. “As a sign of our friendship. It’s important.”

“Alright.” Charlie can see the need to seal the moment somehow, Jason’s big on grand gestures.

Jason stands up, so Charlie stands up too. Apparently they’re going to do this right. 

The hug is just a little bit awkward, but in a nice way, that Charlie really appreciates. Sometimes being friends with Zuck means there are going to be some awkward moments, but more good things.

There’s a clatter as Darcy walks in the door. “Aww, you’re hugging. Are you thinking about America? Is this some kind of weird thing. Want me to go away for a while.”

Charlie wiggles out of Jason’s grasp, getting free.

Jason turns to talk to his boyfriend. “No, we weren’t hugging for America, why would you think that?”

Darcy shrugs. “That’s generally your logic for doing stuff I don’t get. _For America!_ ”

“I still think we need to fuck on those flag sheets,” Zuck says. 

Charlie didn’t need to hear this. “You know I’m still in the room!”

“Sorry,” Darcy says. Zuck just laughs. Charlie really, _really_ , needs to live somewhere else next year.


End file.
